Legendary Australian batter, Ricky Ponting has lauded the performances of Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi. Ponting said that Australia’s upcoming tour of Pakistan will be ‘mouth-watering’ with the two Pakistani players at the top of their game.
Ponting said that the two players showed immense talent during Pakistan’s tour of Australia two years ago and they have gone on to turn themselves into world-class players in a short period of time. He added that the two players have formed the spine of the national team and Australia are in for a real test as they tour Pakistan for the first time in 24 years.
The former Australian captain was full of praise for the ICC player of the year, Shaheen Shah Afridi. He said that Shaheen has turned into a complete package and is one of the finest bowlers in world cricket currently. He added that Shaheen fully deserved the award as he was brilliant in all three formats throughout the past year.
Babar also earned the plaudits for his exploits in limited-overs cricket. Pakistan’s all-format captain bagged the award for ICC ODI player of the year and Ponting believes he rightly deserved the award too.
“I think I said then that for this guy, the sky is the limit. It’s only a matter of time I felt before he was going to be either the No.1-ranked Test batter in the world or certainly challenging for it. He’s probably challenging for that position right now and probably if he had played a few more Test matches through the last couple of years he’d be knocking the door down for that. He’s a beautiful player, simple as that,” Ponting stated.
The Australian cricket team is set to tour Pakistan for a three-match Test series, three-match ODI series, and a one-off T20I next month. The tour is set to commence on 4 March at Rawalpindi as both teams face off in the first Test match.
For the time being though, both Shaheen and Babar are currently playing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Both the players are captaining for the first time this season with Babar leading Karachi Kings and Shaheen leading Lahore Qalandars.
You can also check out the complete PSL schedule here!
